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Monday, January 16, 2012

A Croquis and Body Proportions

It seems that winter has at long last decided to show its face around here. After a cold but brilliant day yesterday, we're now having snow. Well, sleet, mostly. There were a few nice snowflakes this morning. Since we had about a meter of snow around this time last year, I'm not complaining. I also managed to go for a walk around the park *and* go ice-skating in the brilliant weather yesterday, so no complaints at all. :)

Rooibos going ice-skating - also: polka-dot and stripe action ;)

I've slowly been making headway into the Colette Sewing Handbook (which is really a pleasure to read!) and today (after almost 8h of uni - emergency management, which is a practical course and actually pretty fun, the dummies breathe and have a pulse and everything) I actually managed to trace my croquis!

Not much surprise there, I'm pretty short and square (well, rectangular). I am kind of surprised that my body proportions seem to be rather well balanced. Apart from the fact that I'm 7 instead of 8 heads tall (which seems to make me petite, even though I'm 5'5"/164cm), my top-to-hip length is equal to my hip-to-feet length, making my body balanced overall. I'm missing half a head length around my waist and in my thigh length, which seems to make me "balanced with a short mid-body" - which is also the reason why I don't have a small waist and will never have one. There is only about 3 inches space between the bottom of my ribcage and the top of my hip bone - not much space for a waist to dip in.

It's actually kind of interesting to know, even though it doesn't tell me a lot of new things. I had already figured out that my garments need to be close-fitting right below the bust, that gathers along my true waist as well as waist-high skirts and trousers are mostly out, and that skirts work best around knee-length or slightly shorter. This confirms it in a very tangible way, though, so I will try to keep possible alterations (like raising the waistline of a dress to the midriff) in mind.

I've already printed out a few copies of my croquis to get sketching. Hehe, this is going to be fun! (Even though the weather has now turned bad *just* when I was getting in the mood for spring dresses!)
Are you planning on making a croquis? Have you already made one? Has it helped you, style wise?

I'm going to do a croquis too. I think after recent misadventures with patterns it would be good as I think I sometimes get lost in that 'oh, but it's so PRETTY!' rather than thinking 'is this going to suit me or will I hate myself for wasting good fabric, time and energy when it all goes wrong'!

Such a pretty polka dot and striped rosy cheeked skating pic! Showing us what you've found out by doing the croquis exercise is really interesting! Looking forward to seeing what you do now!! I am enjoying seeing everyone's thought processes inspired by the Colette patterns book :-)

You look so sweet in your skating outfit! And I'm seriously loving the croquis - this seems to be a big deal with the Colette Handbook! It seems like a really practical way to start looking at your sewing and your wardrobe. Please let us know if you find it helpful! This is one of those things that I might still need convincing to do!

Like other followers, I´ve to tell you about your skating outfit... you´re wearing the most fantastic outfit on the ice! Lovely dots!I´m a disaster creating my sewing projects, when I´m sewing, I´m like a hurricane! I need to finish it and start with another one... yes I´m a sewingholic (if this word exists! ha ha ha)... Maybe, I´ll have to take a moment to think about my body proportions to get a better project.Your croquis is great! Inspired me!

Hooray for croquis. It's totally fun and fascinating to see yours -- we're all so unique. I particularly loved drawing on mine, sketching ideas, etc. But I really wanted to tell you what a darling winter macaroon you've got! What a fun way to get through winter. You know I'm print shy but I've been dreaming of a plaid dress. Maybe black and white. On the bias. And a full skirt. Sigh. (What, my goodness, were you doing in Kentucky??)

Hi Ali! I'm also really fascinated by all the different croquis (hum, plural?). It's a great sketching help, I've already done a few which I'll show you soon. :) Go ahead and make that plaid dress, I'm sure it'll look great on you!Ah, yes, Kentucky. *lol* I have a friend there, met here during my au-pair year in Nashville, TN and she married there and moved to Kentucky. It's actually not that much in the middle of nowhere, and there's a really cool indoor flea market there! ;)

That is the most perfect ice skating you´ve got going! Too cute! I love all the croqui-action going on at the moment, I haven´t got the Colette Sewing Handbook (yet), but I´ve learned similar things through my fitting book The Perfect Fit, and it was really an eye-opener when I first understood how important it is to understand my own proportions. I´ll be interested to see what you come up with when you´re sketching outfits onto your own croqui. Exciting!

I really enjoy seeing all the croquis around blogland. I think I'm going to have to try this, although first I'd like to get the Colette book. It gives you so much useful information on your shape and proportion. Thanks for sharing!

So, obviously I'm reading your posts backwards, but I've yet to make a croquis. More out of laziness than anything. But it does seem a useful exercise. You look so darling ice skating! We're having a similar "winter" here, but that's okay...last year we were pounded with snow.

I'm going to do a croquis for sure. So many recent misadventures with patterns, discovering what I need to wear to look good is a must. Its just so upsetting when I put work into something that doesn't look good on me. Mind you, I sew in order to relax, that is half the battle but it is little consolation when the garment turns out not to suit me at all. My new year's resolution is to alter a few good patterns and use them over and over again!

Thank You!! This is just what I needed to get my croquis done!! About a year ago I started the laborious process of removing the background from a photo and shelved it! But, last night I stumbled upon this post and lladybird's tutorial (using GIMP), through Oonaballoona's post on the same thing from Feb 2012. It's DONE! It took quite a few hours to get to the line drawing, but I'm soooo happy to have it. When I addded the head-height proportional lines delineating body sections it was interesting how it confirmed my suspicions about my own proportions.

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Sewing with a passion when not stuck with my nose in a book or navigating real life as a doctor. The beautiful things in life: friends & family, cooking & eating, coffee & philosophy, painting & photography, theater & music, singing, travels...